Millerainia's The Daily Courier

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Millerainia's Daily National Newspaper

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The Daily Courier

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SWEET WINS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION



QUEENSTON, NEW BURRIE - Anxiously awaiting the live-results in the Governor's Residence in the New Burrie capital Queenston, Helen Sweet stood on a stage under a large television screen broadcasting the unofficial tabulation of Millerainia's 1579 Presidential election. The exit polls expected a tight race between Sweet, the Liberty Party candidate, and Conservative Coalition candidate and current Millerainian Vice President Theo Daugherty. And as dramatic as the election has been this year, results were very close.

With the premature drop out of Lorde's Choice candidate Trudy Harrison, many of her (Lorde's Chosen) followers threw their support at Daugherty because of his more conservative views. This brought Daugherty and Sweet into a neck and neck tie in polls last month. Different strategies were used by either candidate. Daugherty tried to court the elderly and pensioners, while Sweet tried to engage an politically apathetic cohort of young professionals and students and to win over women.

The resulting polls showed a record-breaking turnout rate in Millerainia of about 73% of eligible voters having voted in the election.

Sweet's hard-work pulled off. Young adults (ages 18-32) were 30% more likely to vote in this election than in previous presidential elections, which clinched her victory over Daugherty as follows:

Helen Sweet won the election with 48.5% of the vote, Daugherty followed with 46.2% and with Progressive Coaltion Rosanne Ayers following with 5.3%.*
*Liberal Coalition, Freedom Party, Anti-Establishmentarianism Party, Original People's Coalition, the Native Faction, and New World Dominion candidates did not make requirements and their votes were given to their second and subsequent choices until a suitable candidate was provided.

At the Governor's Residence, when the results were finalized, the entire room burst into sound. Sweet's running mate, Roy Calientini clasped her hand and raised it up in a sign of victory. Balloons soon came after and everyone began to sing patriotic songs. Champagne bottles were be heard popping and fizzing. When asked about her victory, Helen said "Right now, I'm speechless. Dear, come back in about 5 minutes when I've recovered from all of this adrenaline."

Sweet later addressed the crowd, thanking their support, the Millerainian people, her running mate, family and promised to roll up her sleeves and get Millerainia to work.  

Sweet will be in office by the end of the year, and is expected to immediately jump into working towards party-platform goals and providing insight to citizens and government departments upon what direction her administration will take.

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Millerainia celebrates SIFA Qualification

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ORLANDO CITY, AURELIA - Hundreds of fans gathered tonight to watch the live-stream of Millerainia's football team (soccer in western districts) face off against neighboring and nearby Khibland in the 10th game of the Avidnan qualification for the SIFA World Cup.

Millerainia played an incredibly competitive game with the Khibland team. They scored 2 points, and held off the Khibs from scoring a second point against them in the fourth quarter. Fans erupted in celebration, applause, and drinks were clinked and downed. Music and cheers soon drowned out the sound of the TV's. Millerainia's football community became active at the final buzzer of the fourth quarter.

Is this Millerainia's dream team? Can they bring the SIFA World Cup back home?

Millerainia's General Manager Todd Santos briefly spoke to the Courier about the win.

"Our team played their hearts out, they really did. They wanted to win this. They knew this wasn't going to be an easy game. But for the Millerainian people, they achieved this success due to their hard-work, dedication and positive attitudes. We lost some games; we are not a powerhouse team. But these men have truly out-done any expectations. They are, in my eyes, one of the best teams to grace the pitch with Millerainia's sunrise uniforms. " - Todd Santos

Millerainia ended up closing out the qualification round on top, with 5 wins, 3 draws, 2 losses and with a total of 18 points, narrowly beating Magentina by one point.

Whether Millerainia makes it any further, one thing is for certain: Millerainian football fans will be out and ready to cheer for the Rising Sun nation.

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The Daily Courier

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Amid record-low Birth Rates, Millerainia to Encourage Childbearing and Family-Making


PM Sweet talks with Women For Purple, a pro-family leave association in Wildbourne

WILDBOURNE -- Millerainia is facing an epidemic, as it is characterized by the Helen Sweet- run Executive Ministry. This epidemic is not a sickness or disease, however, it is the low birthrate of Millerainian women. Millerainia's birth-rate has been a topic of debate over the past few years in Parliament and in the general public. Raising the birth rate was one of Helen Sweet's election promises. According to the Ministry of Health, Centre for Population and Disease, Millerainia's birth rate has hit its lowest rate, 1.61 children per woman.  

With over 70% of Millerainians living in urban areas, 60% having received some form of higher education, especially women achieving higher levels than in the past, it is not surprising that the birth rate has diminished in the Rising Sun country. However, this coupled  This has happened over the past 60 years in many developed nations, like Nyland, Oslanberg and Laurentian Kingdom, all reporting lower birth rates. However, researchers at Wildbourne Institute of Technology (WIT), reported that all those nations leveled off, while Millerainia's has decreased quicker, despite the presence of immigration. Researchers normally point to homogeneous populations, like Laurentian Kingdom's, as being case for quicker birth rate reductions.

However, Millerainia has seen record-low immigration rates, something that researchers are still unsure of cause. Additionally, the median age of Millerainians has risen to 40 years old, caused by the lowest death rate in Millerainian history. This is directly as result of advances in healthcare, vaccinations and other disease prevention.

WIT researchers also point to the urbanist policies enacted in the 1550's that encouraged compact and urban population centers as opposed to the former suburban-preference city planning policies. These laws gave fewer building permits outside of designated Urban Growth Regions (UGR's), which forced urban centers to grow and decreased the size of the average Millerainian dwelling by 100 square metres. WIT professor Dr. Thomas Gregarry explained that, "housing size has been seen to directly correlate with fertility, birth-rates and family sizes."

With such a low birth rate, Millerainia could see a decrease in tax-payers, increase in dependents over the pension age (72 nationwide), and sky-rocketing health costs to Millerainia's single-payer public healthcare system.

Access to contraception in Millerainia is wide and free to all citizens, as are family planning services. However, the Millerainian government has decided to take further steps to encourage young people to make the leap into parenthood.

PM Helen Sweet announced the creation of the Purposeful Family Program (commonly known as the Purple Plan) by the Ministry of Health. This program will encourage citizens, aged 18 to 36, and living in households making over $40k [MDX] ($50k in high cost-of-living postal codes) and less than $200k a year, to have children by providing hefty tax breaks for the first 16 years of a child's life. Additionally, qualifying individuals will receive vouchers for low-cost childcare and pre-Kindergarten programmes. Lower wage Millerainians already receive financial and tax assistance for children born, and childcare is offered for free.

Further, is the creation of family-leave laws that promise more lengthy leave for not only birth-mothers, but for fathers, adoptive parents, and surrogates. The law will raise from the mandatory 9 months (post birth) and 2 months pre-birth leave to 13 months post-birth and 3 months pre-birth pregnancy leave across the board. Workplaces will be free and encouraged to offer even longer post-birth family leaves, however will have to maintain the new minimum leave times. Discrimination against Expecting Parents in employment is illegal in Millerainia, with a maximum sentence of $30 million in fines (or 5% of a company's reported holdings, which ever is higher) and 5 years in a federal penitentiary per incidence of discrimination.

PM Sweet believes that these measures will ensure that young people are producing children in households that can encourage strong family units, those that can afford to support a child and have proved to be contributing to Millerainian society and economy. She hopes that within the next 6 years, the birthrate can be raised at least 0.2 children per woman.